Life Daily

A Security guard attached to a Model College in Ojo, Lagos, and two others were on Friday arraigned in an Ojo Magistrates’ Court for allegedly stealing five mattresses. The defendants — Godstime Ajayi, 37, Salisu Yahayah, 25, and Garba Samaila, 40 — are facing a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing before Magistrate A. A. Adesanya. The first defendant pleaded not guilty, while the second and third could not state their pleas because of language barrier Adesanya admitted the first defendant to N150, 000 bail with two sureties in like sum. He said that one of the sureties must be a relative, the other a clergyman. The magistrate, however, remanded the second and third defendants in police custody pending when the court would provide an interpreter. Earlier the prosecutor, Insp. Uche Simeon, had told the court that the defendants committed the offences on Dec. 25 at the secondary school’s hostel in Lagos. He said that Ajayi, the security guard employed to guard the sch

Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has signed the N216.55 billion, 2018 budget passed by the State House of Assembly into law. The budget is made up of N131.1 billion capital expenditure and N85.44 billion recurrent expenditure. El-Rufai signed the budget at a ceremony at the Government House in Kaduna on Tuesday. “We have deliberately tagged it as Budget of Consolidation, because it is the last full annual budget before the 2019 election,’’ he said. He said the budget was designed “to complete many projects we have commenced in the service of our people”. “As I said while presenting the budget, we have published a record number of tenders as we try to achieve the goals outlined in our manifesto, these tenders have led to the commencement of many projects across the state. “We have looked at inherited projects that we considered feasible and viable, some of these have been completed, but others are at various stages of completion,’’ El Rufai said. The Stat

A North Korean defector Ji Hyeon-A, has given a horrifying account how dogs ate dead bodies in her prison camp after she was repatriated to North Korea from China. Ji Hyeon-A spoke at a meeting with United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, on the human rights situation in North Korea. The event was titled “The Terrifying experience of forcibly Repatriated North Korean women,” and was sponsored by the U.S. France, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the U.K. At one detention center, Ji Hyeon-A described how inmates starved to death and their dead bodies given to the guard dogs as food. Ji Hyeon-A who was repatriated three times to North Korea after she was caught in China but finally escaped to South Korea, said: “I was also forced to have an abortion”. She pleaded for the world to act as North Korean women who got pregnant in China were forced to have abortions. “Pregnant women were forced into harsh labour all day. “At night, we heard pregnant mothers scream

The National Reconciliation Committee of the People’s Democratic Party led by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa on Tuesday visited some aggrieved members as part of efforts to forge a post-convention reconciliation within the party. Among the party members visited by the Dickson team was former National Chairmanship aspirant, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, Special Adviser Media Relations to Governor Dickson, Mr Fidelis Soriwei, revealed in a statement in Abuja. Also visited by Dickson were former Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ibrahim Mantu, a former Minister of Information and Orientation, Prof Jerry Gana, and former Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Ina Ciroma, who contested for the position of Deputy National Chairman, North. According to Dickson, all his hosts were positive on the need to have a united and strong party. Adeniran, who lost to Prince Uche Secondus, for the top party job, told Dickson to reach out to all candidates and as many members of the party in the bid to reconci

Turkey appealed on Wednesday to world to recognise East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, as it opened an Islamic summit called in response to a U.S. decision to recognise the city as Israel’s capital. “Firstly the Palestinian state must be recognised by all other countries. We must all strive together for this,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said as foreign ministers convened ahead of the full summit meeting. “We must encourage other countries to recognise the Palestinian state on the basis of its 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” Cavusoglu said. Jerusalem, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, is home to Islam’s third holiest site and has been at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it, an action not recognised internationally. U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement on Dec. 6, recognising the city as Israel’s capital led

Former soccer star George Weah faces Vice-President Joseph Boakai as Liberia holds a delayed presidential run-off vote on Dec. 26, the electoral commission chief Jerome Korkoya, says. The poll was held up for several weeks by a court challenge by Charles Brumskine, who came third in round one. The winner replaces Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president in what will be, if it goes smoothly, Liberia’s first peaceful handover of power in 70 years. The Supreme Court on Dec. 7, dismissed a complaint from third-place finisher Brumskine’s Liberty Party, which had said fraud had undermined the first round in October. Electoral Commission Chairman Korkoya said campaigning could start immediately but must end by December 24. Liberians are eager for change after Nobel Peace Prize winning Johnson-Sirleaf’s 12-year rule, which sealed a lasting peace in a country that for decades had only known war, but which has failed to tackle corruption or much improve the lot of the poorest. Via... Reute

Nigeria has expressed great concern about the situation in many parts of the Middle East and called for the peaceful resolution of the protracted conflicts between Israel and Palestinian. “Obviously, the current situation does not offer a sustainable solution to the Question of Palestine. “Indeed, it is creating despair among the people of Palestine and causing anxiety among the people of Israel,’’ Amb. Olukunle Bamgbose, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has said. He delivered Nigeria’s statement at the UN General Assembly ‘Debate on Question of Palestine and the Situation in the Middle East.’ “Nigeria calls on all parties to make genuine efforts to find peaceful solutions and to cooperate closely with the UN and its relevant agencies accompanying them to realise this objective. “As the international community continues to seek avenues to advance peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question, international efforts remain focused on paving the way for Israel